El Churro

Why Does This New York Cafe Look Like Mexico City’s Oldest Churro Shop? | Eater NY

"When El Churro opened last year on the Lower East Side at the corner of East Houston and Allen streets, its resemblance to Mexico City’s Churrería El Moro was striking: high ceilings and white walls, a menu of churros alongside dipping sauces and hot chocolate, staff making fresh churros in plain view, and white paper bags stamped with the shop’s name in thin white letters on a blue background. Reported first by EV Grieve and described as turning heads, the shop’s Israeli owner Eli Sterne says he had not heard of El Moro before opening and has never been to Mexico City; he hired an unnamed Spain-based designer to create a space he describes as Scandinavian, minimalistic, and futuristic. El Churro also differs from the Mexico City original in two key ways: its churros cost about four times as much as in Mexico City, and they are gluten-free, made from a blend of coconut, rice, and cassava flours—chosen deliberately to distinguish the shop from other local churro sellers—while Sterne maintains that any similarities to other churrerías are coincidental and “there’s only one way to make it.”" - Luke Fortney